


180 Paintbrushes

by chaotically_cas



Category: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
Genre: M/M, Tw curing, tw breif physical violence, tw yelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:22:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28877892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaotically_cas/pseuds/chaotically_cas
Summary: Steve Randle hates art class. Until he doesn’t.
Relationships: Ponyboy Curtis & Steve Randle
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	180 Paintbrushes

**Author's Note:**

> This is aged up it said so but I just wanna make that clear. Also I’m fully aware this is corny. & please don’t mention any spelling mistakes lmao

The first day of school was not something the juniors looked forward to. Especially Steve Randle.   
He was smart, but he couldn't honestly care less about school. The only motivation he has for still going was his motivation for not turning out like his father. Or having to work full time like Sodapop.   
So he went to school. Plus he was everyone's ride. Those who bothered to go to school that is. So just him, Ponyboy, and Johnny Cade.   
Steve parked his car in the junior parking lot and got out with the other two boys. They were all juniors this year, something Pony and Johnny were excited about. Especially Ponyboy. Steve could never bring himself to understand why that kid liked school so damn much.   
“What’s your guys first period?” Johnny asked with a skip in his step.   
“Math” Steve grunted.   
“History” Ponyboy smiled, making Steve roll his eyes.   
“Johnny?” Steve asked.   
“History too” Johnny beamed.   
“God, no wonder the two of you are virgins” Steve teased with a small chuckle.   
“Piss off Randle” Pony hissed with a laugh as well.   
The trio said goodbyes and split towards their respective classes.   
The day was long. Especially for Steve. Pony and Johnny seemed to have every damn class together, and Steve only had one class with Johnny.   
That was until Steve’s last class of the day. His elective.   
“Ugh. Art” he cursed to himself. He wanted to take wood shop but apparently that was all full. So now he was stuck in art class. Of all classes.   
He groaned as he opened the heavy wooden door and walked into the dimly lit room. Real pansy like, he thought.   
He looked around the room. There were about seventeen kids, most girls. Which made Steve feel both better and worse.   
“Steve?” he heard his name being called right as he was about to walk right out of the room.   
He turned around to see Ponyboy of all people looking at him, waving him over, with a confused smile on his face. “Fuck” he mumbled to himself, walking over to where Pony was sitting.   
“Why you in art?” Pony asked, a slight bit of humor on his words.   
“Watch it” Steve warned “wood shop was full.”  
“Oh, well, I’m glad we have a class together!” Pony smiled brightly. Steve didn’t know why, but that made him feel better about the pansy ass class.   
Steve was gonna say something but the teacher interrupted him.   
He was an old white man with a pretty thick Texan accent, which nearly made Steve laugh at the oddness of the situation. I mean, Steve Randle. In art class. With the kid Curtis brother.   
Steve zoned out as the teacher continued to babble about the classroom rules and expectations. Something about there being no grades on work, only effort, made Steve physically recoil in thinking ‘how is this even a real class, this is such a waste of my time’.  
“Steve?” Pony asked, shocking Steve out of his thoughts “wanna be partners?”  
“Partners? You gotta be kidding me. The hell do we need partners for in damn art class” Steve ranted in disbelief, not thinking about his words.   
“Yeah” Pont chuckled out softly. This made Steve look over at the kid who was picking with his fingernails. Something in Steve felt bad.   
“Sorry kid I didn’t mean it like that” he apologized half heartedly.   
Pony looked at him in shock.   
“Since when do you apologize?” Pony teased, laughing.   
“Oh shut up. To think I was gonna be your partner” Steve yawned, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.   
“Fine, asshole.”  
For the rest of the class the teacher went on and on about his life and career as an art teacher, something Steve couldn’t bear to listen to. But somehow he found himself thinking that, hey, art class might not be so bad.  
And the next few weeks went exactly like that.   
Steve grumping through the whole day, getting to art class, and after a month Steve began to look forward to art class.  
“What?” Pony asked, taking his eyes off his current masterpiece to look at Steve.   
“‘Nothing” Steve shrugged with a cocky smile.   
Pony rolled his eyes and hesitantly went back to his painting, Steve still watching his every stroke. He felt a bit uncomfortable but it wasn’t anything he didn’t mind.  
Steve would usually slap a crappy drawing of a car or a tree on the paper and call it a day. Then watch and annoy Pony for the rest of the hour-long class. Which was what he was doing today.   
“You know Steve, you could at least try” Pony chuckled, focused intently on the portrait he was doing.   
“We aren’t even being graded Pone. There’s no point in trying” Steve whispered, so only Ponyboy could hear.   
“It’s fun” Pony shrugged “you get to express yourself.”  
“Ain’t that what your poetry for?”  
“How do you know about that?” Pony asked, his eyes snapping to Steve.   
“We have the same English teacher, dipshit. You’re good” Steve laughed.   
“Thanks” Ponyboy blushed.   
“Ain’t no thing. Who you drawing?” Steve asked, changing the subject.   
“It’s pops” Pony smiled softy.   
“It’s real good” Steve complimented genuinely. It was really good.   
“Thanks Steve.”   
Steve could have almost sworn Pony was blushing.   
Over the last month to say that the two had gotten a lot closer was an understatement. Before art class they would constantly argue. Fight. Yell. But now they were practically friends. And while the rest of the gang was confused, they were glad they didn’t have to hear them anymore.   
And that’s how they continued on for the rest of the year. Walking to class together. Goofing around together. Pony painting or sketching Steve to the point Steve had nearly a whole notebook full of them. And he would never admit it, but he cherished them. And he had even started to try a bit in class. Not very hard, but he still tried more than just a crappy water colored car or a crayon sketch of a tree.   
And with only about two weeks left in the year it was about time cause he was hardly pulling a C. In art.   
“How do you have a C in art class?” Pony laughed, as they sat down together.   
“Shut up” Steve retorted with a chuckle making Pony raise his hands in surrender.   
The class started and Pony began one of his many watercolor paintings of Steve.   
“What am I doing in this one?” Steve asked curiosity as Pony worked on his signature ‘complicated swirls’.   
“I don’t know. Just smiling I guess” Pony shrugged, his cheeks tinted a soft shade of pink.   
Steve was about to tease him when a big kid walked by, purposely spilling water all over Pony’s painting. Completely ruining it.   
“WHAT THE HELL?!” Steve challenged, standing up to the face the asshole that had done it.   
“Steve it’s fine-“ Pony started, grabbing Steve’s wrist.   
“It ain’t fine?! This asshole ruined your painting on purpose” Steve shouted, stepping closer to the boy and sizing him up. He had an annoying smirk on his face that made Steve’s fists clench.   
“What’s going on here?” Steve heard the teacher approach from behind him.   
“This mother fucker ruined Ponyboy’s painting” Steve snarled, almost nose to nose with the other boy.   
“It was an accident” the boy lied “I swear.”  
“The hell it was” Steve shouted, shoving the boy to the ground making the class gasp dramatically.   
“Steven Randle! Take a walk” the teacher scolded, pointing him out the door “and do bother to come back. I have a detention slip for you.”  
“Fuck this” Steve hissed. He stormed out the door leaving Pony in shock.   
“You ok Randy?” the teacher asked, helping the boy up.   
Pony didn’t care to listen to his answer. He was beyond confused. He didn’t understand why Steve was so worked up. A year ago he would have been the one spilling shit on his art.   
The rest of class went by painfully slow for Pony without a friend to mess around with. He didn’t even bother to restart his painting.   
He heard the bell ring but it barely registered as he made his way out of the classroom to see Steve smoking against the wall.   
“I thought you’d go home?” Pony asked, surprised he hadn’t.   
“I got to take you home don’t I?” Steve shrugged.   
“But ya got detention-“  
“Yes you do” the teacher spoke, coming up behind the two of them again.   
“Shit” Steve huffed, putting out his cigarette in the water fountain and following the teacher back into the art room.   
Usually he would have been long gone. He would have never been caught dead in detention before. Especially because of Ponyboy.   
“I just need you to clean up the room. That’s all. I’ll be back in an hour” the teacher told him, handing him a wet rag.   
“Fun” Steve snorted sarcastically, earning a look of annoyance from the teacher. He didn’t like Steve. No teachers ever did. But Steve didn't care.   
The teacher walked out of the room, leaving Steve alone.   
He grumpily began to wash the table in front of him, seeing the red paint on it turning the whole table a light shade of pink. He worked on the table for a few minutes before he heard the door open.   
Steve looked over to see Ponyboy.   
“What you doing here?” Steve asked, stopping his cleaning to face his friend.   
“Thought I’d help. After all, ya did stick up for me” Pony shrugged with a small smile.   
“Thanks kid” Steve smiled “you know I would’ve pounded that kid to a pulp, yeah?”  
“Boy I could tell” Pony laughed, picking up a wet rag “why’d ya get so mad in the first place?”  
“He ruined a real good piece of yours. It ain’t cool” Steve replied nonchalantly.   
“Yeah but you got like thirty more” Pony chuckled and began to wipe the table across from Steve.   
“So?”   
“So why did this one matter?”  
“They all matter.”  
They fell into a comfortable silence where the only sound that was heard was the sloshing of the wet rags against the paint covered tables.   
Out of nowhere Steve felt himself slapped on the back with a sloping wet rag. He turned around to see Ponyboy with a horrid smirk on his face.   
“You’re gonna regret that” Steve snarled with an even worse smile spreading across his face.   
He slapped his wet rag right towards Pony’s face but he ducked, tackling Steve to the ground. As they fell one of their feet hit a small container of paint that came splashing down on the both of them, drenching them in green paint.   
“Fuck” Steve laughed, spitting the paint out of his mouth as it dripped on him from Pony’s hair.   
“Oops” Pony blushed with a slight laugh as he stood up off of Steve.   
“Oops?” Steve laughed teasingly “oops?! Fucking hell Pony.”  
The two of them burst out laughing. Pony doubled over in his laughter and when he stood up he found himself squirting right in the face with blue paint, making Steve howl.   
“You’re gonna regret that” Pony warned.   
“I am?” Steve couldn’t take him seriously.   
But before the both of them knew it they were covered in every shade of paint there could possibly be and the classroom looked the times worse than before. The two of them completely covered head to two, laughing so hard their lungs hurt.   
“You look ridiculous” Pony giggled.   
“Me? I’m pretty sure we both look like that Van guy” Steve smirked.   
“Van Gogh” Ponyboy corrected.   
“Shut up” Steve teased.   
He found himself staring at Ponyboy. He could barely see the faint trace of his freckles under all the paint. His hair no longer auburn but a mix of blues and yellows, clinging to his forehead. His chest still heaving. He looked quite literally like a piece of art. And Steve found himself finally understanding the appeal of art class. It was him.   
“Golly I know I look ridiculous, ya don’t need to stare” Pony chuckled out.   
“It ain’t that” Steve said with a shaky breath, taking a step closer to Ponyboy.   
Pony tilted his head in confusion.   
“You look real good” Steve spoke almost at a whisper, closing the space between them so they were practically chest to chest.   
“Steve?”   
“Yeah Pony.” Steve breathed out.   
“What are ya doing?” Pony blushed heavily, it was hard to see under the thick paint that covered parts of his face, but Steve could tell.   
“I was thinking of kissing ya” Steve mumbled looking deep into Ponyboy’s eyes.   
“Oh” Pony said, blushing even harder “continue then.”   
Steve let out a small chuckle as a huge smile crept across his face.   
They both leaned in and their lips met. Steve could have sworn he felt as colorful on his inside as he looked on the outside.   
They’re lips moved together like a slow dance they had done a million times before. They both tasted like paint but neither cared.   
They pulled away breathless, leaning their paint covered foreheads together.   
“We better get cleaning up” Pony blushed deeply.   
“So soon?” Steve smiled softly, his breath making the cool paint on Pony’s lips send a shiver down his spine.   
Pony just giggled as Steve leaned in again.


End file.
